The New Order
by Lykinia
Summary: Harry agrees to help Hermione found a Defense Against the Dark Arts group in light of Professor Umbridge's sub-par teaching. After meeting those who are interested, however, he realizes that there is a serious problem in their membership. Knowing just what is at stake, he seeks to rectify things himself. OoTP Fanfic. Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, own Harry Potter
1. Proposition

'Harry, aren't you coming?' Hermione asked, looking back at the raven-haired boy curiously. Ron stopped beside her and also looked back, frowning in confusion as he took in his best friend's expression, which seemed downright fearful.

'Harry, are you all right, mate?' he asked concernedly.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' Harry answered, trying his best to convince himself as much as his friends. 'There's something I want to do, and it scares me a little, to be honest.'

'What's wrong?' Hermione asked at once, her eyes crinkling heavily with worry. 'Do you need our help?'

'No,' the green-eyed fifteen-year-old replied slowly. 'I appreciate it, but I feel like this is something I have to do myself if I want it to work.'

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other, evidently confused by their friend's words. After a few moments, Ron shrugged and said, 'Suit yourself, just don't do anything too crazy, yeah?' With that, he passed through the large double doors into the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione, however, stayed right where she was.

'Harry, are you having second thoughts about the Defense group?' she asked shrewdly.

Amazed at how close her first guess was to the subject of his worry, Harry said, 'Not exactly; I still want to do it, but I'm having reservations about its members so far. There's a small problem and I want to try and fix it.'

Hermione stared at him for a long time then said, 'Well, if you need my help just ask, okay?'

'Okay.' Harry nodded and Hermione gave him a small smile before following Ron to the Gryffindor table. Harry stood framed in the doorway to the Great Hall, looking around at the mess of students and the teachers up at the staff table. He sighed as he remembered the opinion most of them held of him; it would do nothing to make what he was about to do any easier. He was scared, he had no illusions about that, but he was not a Gryffindor for nothing. He gathered his courage and made his way to the table where he was least welcome - and that was saying quite a lot.

'Good evening, Davis,' he said in his best attempt to sound cheerful and pleasant, 'Greengrass, Runcorn. D'you mind if I join you?'

Four girls looked up at him in utter disbelief - as did the rest of the occupants of the Great Hall, he knew. He could feel their stares and pointing, as well as hear their whispers. He ignored it all as best as he could, determined to do what he had determined needed to be done after the meeting at the Hog's Head.

Keeping her voice down to a conspiratorial whisper, Daphne Greengrass asked, 'Have you lost your mind, Potter?'

'Yes; don't you read the papers?' Harry retorted derisively; he mentally punched himself, chastising his attitude. He did not need to work against himself at the moment. 'Sorry about that, I get a little…defensive when my sanity is questioned, as I'm sure you've had opportunity to witness. So how about it - would you let me join you?'

The girls all looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Harry could tell that their first instinct was to pull out their wands and send him - probably violently - back to the Gryffindor table, but he could also tell that they were intrigued by his appearance at the table belonging to the house that was as "anti-Potter" as it could get. Everyone was still staring at him, he knew, and he could feel himself working up a small, cold sweat as a result. He wondered what they were all thinking. No doubt Ron thought that he had indeed taken leave of his senses, whereas Hermione would probably alternate between wondering if he had come down with some ailment or if something bordering on the impossible had occurred to spur these strange events.

Harry was pulled out of his thoughts when the Greengrass sisters, who had been sitting together, scooted apart to make room for him. He thanked them with an appreciative smile, feeling some of his tension leave him as he took his seat; it rose right back up, however, when he finally looked around and caught most of the Slytherin students staring at him with murder in their eyes. He had done it: he had jumped into a pit of snakes, and many of them were poised to strike. He knew they wouldn't, not with everyone - including the teachers - watching the proceedings intently, but it did nothing to make him feel any better. He spotted Draco Malfoy, self-proclaimed Prince of Slytherin, glaring hatefully at him - and, quite uncharacteristically, doing nothing else. If even Malfoy wouldn't try anything when he encroached upon his domain, then Harry was relatively sure that he was safe - at least for the time being. He glanced up at the Head Table and saw, to his immense relief, that Umbridge was not there, just as he had hoped when he had enlisted Fred and George for help in distracting the old toad. He didn't doubt for a second that she would have attempted to drag him away from the Slytherin table by his ear for daring to try and "pollute the minds of honorable students" with his "lies".

He looked back at the four girls that he had addressed earlier to find them staring at him with a kind of wonder that confirmed to him that they really did think that he had gone nutters. He shrugged and reached a hand out for a flagon of pumpkin juice before he stopped himself. He didn't need Mad-Eye Moody to tell him how stupid it was to have anything at a table where almost everyone - at least he hoped it was _almost_ everyone, as opposed to the entire population - reviled him. They might not do anything as conspicuous as hexing him outright for fear of being caught, but he wouldn't put it past some of the Slytherins to put something in a drink and Switch his own for the contaminated one. He drew his hand back and ran it through his already messy hair in frustration. He needed to stay alert and highly suspicious if he wanted to leave the Great Hall in one piece.

He looked at the girls again; they were now eying him as though he might suddenly explode. He sighed and said, making sure that no one else could listen, 'I, er…I wanted to talk to you.' They said nothing, just continued staring at him, much like everyone else was. He shook his head of the thought of all those eyes on him and continued, 'I wanted to ask you if - if you're satisfied with Umbridge's teaching.'

That elicited expressions that he never would have dreamed of finding on any of these girls' faces - expressions that, if it had been any other situation, would have made him laugh himself stupid at them. Now, however, they made him gulp a little.

'That's what you wanted to say?' little Astoria Greengrass asked incredulously. 'I thought it was something serious like you wanted to ask permission to date Daphne.'

'Of course I find that Umbridge's teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts leaves a lot to be desired,' Daphne said, resolutely ignoring her younger sister's nonsense as she normally did, 'but why do you ask?'

'Well, er, we - I mean I had a meeting with a few other students about Umbdrige. They were all dissatisfied with her teaching, particularly the fifth and seventh years. We thought it would be best if we took matters into our own hands, seeing as she's very likely to ruin our career choices by not teaching us Defense when we need to pass our exams.'

The girls looked back at each other, eyebrows re-raised.

'You mean you and your friends are going to teach yourselves the correct Defense curriculum?' Thea Runcorn asked, her eyes narrowed heavily in suspicion as she regarded Harry.

'Y - Yeah,' Harry answered, feeling more than a little intimidated; they outnumbered him, after all, and he had never doubted the in-born ferocity that most girls seemed to possess.

'And who's going to be teaching?' Thea asked, her eyes narrowing further into slits.

Harry took a deep breath. 'I am.'

Many of their reactions were not at all unexpected; Thea scoffed, Tracey Davis gave him a derisive smirk and Daphne performed her trademark eye-roll. He was surprised to see that Astoria was not regarding him with any negativity. Instead, she seemed to be sizing him up thoughtfully.

'Well, it looks like your ego has finally inflated your head just a bit too much, Potter,' Tracey said nastily, still sneering.

'I think you're confusing me with Malfoy, Davis,' Harry said shortly. 'Now if you wouldn't be so hasty to pass judgment on me, could you listen while I explain the situation to you?' Tracey seemed cowed by the hard glare that Harry was giving her, and none of the others said anything. When he was sure that they weren't going to interrupt, Harry said, 'This wasn't my idea, it was Hermione Granger's. When she approached me about teaching other students Defense Against the Dark Arts, I was just as skeptical as you are. I'm no expert; personally, I think I have quite a long way to go. I'm not even in my final year yet. But Hermione reminded me of something - something that I couldn't deny: I have the experience that most people our age typically lack. It's no secret that I always find myself in some…unique situations, and I've managed to survive them all. I'll be the first to admit that I had help with most of it, and that I seem to have some uncanny amount of luck on my side, but I also have to admit - after Hermione practically forced me to - that not everyone, my age or otherwise, could have come out of it like I did. I realized that my experiences have given me something that I can teach others: how to do your best to stay alive.'

Their faces had gone from full of contempt at his supposed arrogance in thinking that he was qualified to teach others back to raised eyebrows.

'That seems more than a little dramatic for passing our exams, don't you think?' Tracey pointed out, all ill feeling gone from her voice.

'It is,' Harry agreed, 'but I think it's only appropriate what with Voldemort running around again.'

He took the shrieks, shudders and gasps silently, determined not to sabotage his efforts.

'There's no proof that he's returned -' Thea began.

'Don't try to act stupid, Runcorn, I know you're not - far from it, actually. In fact, I don't doubt that you're all smarter than me -'

'No argument there,' Tracey interrupted.

'You're Slytherins,' Harry pressed on, ignoring Tracey. 'You know how to read in between the lines. If you were in the stands that night then I'm sure you all saw Cedric Diggory's body. He didn't have a scratch on him; how many things do you know of that could kill someone that way?'

'A Basilisk,' Astoria answered at once, 'and the Killing Curse.'

'Right,' said Harry with a nod in the third year's direction. 'Seeing as I killed the last Basilisk seen in at least three centuries -' The girls' eyes bugged out at this pronouncement. '- that leaves the only plausible cause of death being the Killing Curse. So tell me: do any of you think that I killed Cedric Diggory?'

The girls looked at each other again then Daphne shook her head and said, 'No.'

'Then you agree that it had to have been someone else that killed Cedric?' When they nodded, Harry said, 'It was Voldemort.'

'Potter,' Thea said slowly after they had finished another round of shudders at the Dark Lord's name, 'I believe that you didn't kill Diggory, but the _Dark Lord_? It's so unlikely -'

'I told you not to try acting stupid,' Harry said hotly. 'I'm sure that every Slytherin knows what's going on; I don't doubt that Malfoy's been prancing around your common room even more than usual now that his daddy is back to being one of Voldemort's favorite pets.'

There was a long silence before Astoria finally said, after looking carefully around, 'All right, we know that he's back, but you have to admit, Harry, that the idea of a fourteen-year-old fighting him and living to tell about it sounds highly ridiculous.'

'Yeah, I've come to that conclusion myself,' Harry said with a smile at the younger girl, surprised that she had addressed him using his first name. 'I can only explain it in one way: I got lucky again.'

'How? What happened?'

They were all looking at him with keen interest now. Harry heaved a deep sigh and said, 'That's a story for another time, I'm afraid. I realized that I have to tell everyone what happened if I want a chance at them believing me, but there's someone I think deserves to hear it directly from me before I do that.'

'Chang,' Tracey stated simply, to which Harry nodded. He didn't know why, but he got the feeling that they had suddenly warmed up to him a little.

'So you aren't starting this group just to learn the Defense curriculum, you're all trying to learn to defend yourselves,' Daphne summarized, eliciting another nod from Harry. 'If that's so, then why approach us? We're Slytherins, after all; our reputation is none to flattering, and from what I've seen, you hate us.'

'I hate Malfoy and his goons,' Harry corrected. 'I abhor bullies, having dealt with a particularly annoying one for most of my life, and that's the biggest reason why I detest Malfoy.'

'Don't you count us among them?' Tracey asked curiously, indicating herself, Daphne and Thea, all of whom were in Harry's year. 'We've laughed at your expense far too many times for me to count'

'Yeah, you have,' Harry agreed tonelessly. 'But you've never been outright mean to me or my friends; you've never actually said or done anything against me or my friends, which tells me that you may not want to chop me up into potion ingredients, unlike many in your house.' He glanced around again and saw that many were still staring at the hitherto unimaginable interaction. 'Malfoy flaps his gums about anyone he thinks is beneath him, Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson are his sycophants and I don't know much about Bulstrode, but if my memory serves me correctly, she tried to strangle Hermione to death during the Dueling Club in second year, hence my not talking to any of them. Nott's father is a Death Eater, but I don't know much about him, and I know practically nothing of Blaise Zabini. You four are the only ones I thought I could approach, if only because you aren't entirely antagonistic towards me.'

'Okay,' Astoria said slowly. 'You're still taking a great risk, Harry; what's to stop us from singing about this to anyone else - less savory Slytherins, Professor Snape and Umbridge, for example?'

'Umbridge already knows,' Harry said bitterly. When he saw the Slytherin girls look confused, he explained, saying, 'Don't you think it's a bit weird that a bunch of students want to start a Defense Against the Dark Arts group and Umbridge just happens to declare a new decree banning all student societies?'

Their eyes bugged out once more as they seemed horrified that they had not noticed that very, _very_ large coincidence. Seeing that they had grasped their situation in relation to Umbridge, Harry continued, 'I'd wager Snape already knows, only because I'm positive that Dumbledore knows; hardly anything gets past him in the castle. As for less savory Slytherins, the only terrible thing they could do about it would be to tell on me to Umbridge, but she already knows, so they can't do anything at all, can they?'

'But if Umbridge knows,' said Tracey slowly, 'why aren't you in a year's worth of detention right now?'

'Because we haven't actually done anything - at least not yet, or as far as she knows,' Harry replied. 'Without her actually catching us in a meeting or something, she can't possibly prove without a doubt that we're breaking the Educational Decree, so that's the only way any of us could land in trouble.'

Harry fell silent to allow them to process his words. He looked back up at the Head Table and saw that Umbridge was still missing; Snape, however, was there, and staring unblinkingly at him, as though trying to Conjure fire right on his person. He turned back to his companions and found them all with thoughtful expressions on his face.

'I want to know why you would want _any_ Slytherin joining your little group, Potter - and no tricks or lies, if you please,' Daphne said, her icy blue eyes staring into his emerald green ones.

'I wouldn't try to lie to or trick you, Greengrass; like I said, I believe you're a lot smarter than me. Besides, it's not really how I work.' Harry took a moment to collect his thoughts and said, 'I've been thinking that we need more eyes and ears in the enemy camp, so to speak. It's a well-known fact that many Slytherins are Death Eater kids - I know none of you are, though - and a lot of them are only too eager to follow in their parents' footsteps. I'd like to keep an eye on them, because I don't put it past Voldemort -' Shriek. Shudder. Gasp. '- to use these students to execute whatever plans he may have towards Hogwarts.'

'And that's where a few Slytherins would come in useful,' Tracey said, catching on. 'They could effectively become spies.'

'Exactly. But that's not the only reason.' Harry looked down at his fingers, which he was nervously twisting around each other. 'I want to do what I can to make sure that as many people as possible have the capacity to defend themselves and their loved ones. And then I remembered that Slytherins, no matter what the Wizarding world thinks of them, are people; they have loved ones as well, people that they want to protect above all else. How can I help one group of people fulfill their wishes while shunning another aside? I know I don't come across as the most Slytherins-are-friends kind of person, but even I realize that not every Slytherin could possibly be evil or Dark, just as it's impossible for every Gryffindor to be a good person.' Harry's voice tightened as he thought of Peter Pettigrew.

Again, he could tell that he had gained a little bit of respect in the girls' eyes.

'I don't think you give yourself enough credit, Potter; you're not nearly as stupid as I thought you were,' Thea said appreciatively.

'Gee, thanks, you have no idea how much your praise means to me,' Harry retorted playfully, and he was actually happy to hear them laugh a little. 'Seriously, though, I don't want good people to suffer just because of whatever pre-conceived notions the Wizarding world has on Slytherin House.'

'Okay, you've convinced me,' Astoria said brightly. 'I think I want in on this little plot.'

'Astoria, maybe we should think more about this,' Daphne said cautiously even as Harry smiled at the younger Greengrass girl.

'I've already thought about it and I have to say that Harry makes some excellent points. Why shouldn't we learn to defend ourselves and our families and friends? We know what's waiting out there Daph, and it's anything but pretty. We need to be prepared, and if we have to take matters into our own hands, what possible reason is there for us not to?'

'Getting in trouble with Umbridge and the Ministry?' Thea suggested. 'My father works at the Mnistry, you know.'

'We're working on a couple of ways to make sure we aren't caught,' Harry assured them. 'Nothing's solid as of yet, but believe me when I say I don't want anyone to land in a fire because of something I had a hand in cooking up. Besides, even if we do get caught, Fudge and Umbridge will be much too happy about finally nailing me to care about anyone else.'

They laughed a little more at that before Tracey asked, 'But what do we say now that we've been seen talking to you? People are obviously going to wonder what you wanted from us, and I'm sure Umbridge will be close to the top of the list.'

'Tell them whatever you can come up with,' Harry replied with a shrug. 'My reputation has pretty much gone down the tubes, so I don't really care at this point - just try not to make it something too embarrassing, yeah?' He was not at all assured by the sudden grins that spread out on many of their faces.

'We'll think of something,' Astoria said, still smiling evilly. She looked at Daphne and said, 'So what say you, dear sister; are you in on this or what?'

Daphne alternated between staring at her sister and Harry for a long time before she sighed and nodded. 'I have to agree with my sister in that you've made your case quite well, Potter.'

Harry smiled and looked at Thea and Tracey. They seemed to think for a while before they also confirmed their participation.

'Brilliant,' said Harry happily. 'I'll let you know when and where the first meeting is as soon as I can.' He paused in the action of getting up and looked back at them. 'Er, I know I said that it wouldn't hurt much if you talked about this with other students - which I honestly believe - but I'd rather you didn't if it's not too much trouble.'

'Of course, we're not stupid Harry, as you so rightly said.' Astoria waved an airy hand and grinned as she said this. Harry smiled at her again before getting to his feet, wishing them a pleasant night and heading to the Gryffindor table, where he was instantly mobbed as he sat down. He didn't know it, but four Slytherin girls were staring thoughtfully at him long after he had left their presence.


	2. Resolutions

'So what do you think?' Daphne Greengrass asked once she had locked the door to the empty classroom behind her and cast a few layers of Silencing Charms on it. The four Slytherin girls had left the Great Hall soon after Harry Potter had gone to the Gryffindor table to avoid Draco Malfoy, who had been strutting pompously towards them.

'Didn't we just say what we think? We agreed to have a look at this group, didn't we?' Astoria said to her sister, looking confused.

'Yes, we did. But what about Potter's plan to spy on the Death Eater kids? Are we really willing to do that?'

They regarded each other in long silence before Tracey said, 'I am. I'm just a half-blood, and in their eyes, I'm little more than a Muggleborn what with my father being a Muggle. If it weren't for you and Thea, I'm pretty sure I'd be a complete pariah; I'm the only Slytherin fifth year who isn't a pureblood. Malfoy and his thugs haven't been nice to me at any rate anyway.'

The others nodded at her words, knowing only too well exactly how Malfoy treated Tracey when they were away from the eyes of the other houses. Daphne looked at Thea, who was cleaning her glasses with the sleeve of her robes.

'What about you, Thea? Your father is…' Daphne trailed off, not knowing how to say what she wanted in a way that wouldn't hurt her friend's feelings.

Thea, however, smiled sadly as she said, 'He's a bigoted pureblood supremest. You don't have to put things lightly, Daphne; I know exactly what he is.' She paused for a moment before she continued, 'I don't doubt that he would join the Death Eaters if given half a chance; with my mother gone, there's nothing stopping him this time.' She sighed. 'I think I haven't been giving Potter quite the credit he deserves, not from what I saw and heard today; he seems to genuinely care about other people's wellbeing, and it also looks like he's thought things out quite a bit. I don't think I'd mind doing something for such a person, especially if it helps me keep the people I care about safe.'

'Yeah, I think we were all surprised by what Potter had to say -'

'I wasn't - not really, anyway,' Astoria interrupted. 'I've kind of been wanting to get a chance to speak with to for a long time. I hear Malfoy go on and on about what an arrogant and attention-seeking blowhard Harry is, but I always thought that it was strange coming from Malfoy, who's as arrogant and attention-seeking as someone could possibly be. I guess you didn't notice it before because you're in his year; you always have to listen to Malfoy go off about him and watch the two of them try to rip each other apart, but when I see him, he always seems to be nice to anyone he can manage. I remember you telling me how the whole school turned against him when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, but he didn't hold it against anyone. When he got into the Tri-wizard Tournament, people alternated between loving him and hating the very idea of him, and he still didn't lash out at anyone. And now, the Ministry and Umbridge are doing everything they can to make his life miserable, but all he's thinking about is helping people where he can - people who most likely think him insane or a liar and are only siding with him to have a chance at passing their exams.'

The older girls digested Astoria's words with thoughtful expressions, looking as though they were each revising their opinions on Harry Potter.

Astoria continued, 'I don't think he's at all what most people make him out to be. We thought he hated every Slytherin just on the basis of their being in Slytherin, but you heard what he said. I think he was being sincere.'

Daphne shook her head. 'How could you see all of this while we couldn't?'

'Like I said, you've all been around Malfoy too much, and the only interactions you've really had with Harry would be laughing at him or his fighting with Malfoy,' Astoria explained. 'All the Slytherins in fourth year and upwards seem to detest him, but most of the younger students, across all the houses, almost worship him, though I doubt he knows that. The younger kids all talk about how nicely he treats them.'

'Don't let Potter hear Astoria talk about him or he really might have his head inflated,' Tracey said to Daphne, who mirrored her best friend's smirk. Astoria snorted and rolled her eyes.

'What about you two?' Thea said, gesturing towards the Greengrass sisters. 'Are you willing to spy on the Death Eater kids and report to Potter?'

Daphne and Astoria looked at each other for a moment before Daphne said, 'I have absolutely no love for the Death Eaters or You-Know-Who. Our family stayed neutral in the last war, but we might not be so lucky this time; it'd be good to have a few backup plans, and I've noticed that Potter seems to be very close to Dumbledore - more close than any student and Headmaster should be. A few alliances here and there wouldn't hurt, so yes, I am willing.'

Everyone turned to look at Astoria, who was fidgeting and doing her best to avoid their gazes. 'W - Well, I don't think it's much of a secret that I have a little bit of a crush on Malfoy - when he's not making an arse of himself, at least. But I know he's wrong for me; he's the biggest pureblood bigot of them all, and I can tell that he'd love nothing more than to be inducted into the Death Eaters. I really don't want to be with someone like that, no matter what I might feel for them. Plus I'm really tired of how he always goes "my father this" and "my father that"; I'd like a man who doesn't need his daddy to prop him up, thanks.' Astoria smiled as the other girls nodded fervently. 'Keeping all of this in mind, I think I'd like to work with Harry.'

'Great, we all agree, then,' Tracey said with a smile. 'Now we need to figure out one more thing: what do we tell people Potter wanted when he came to sit with us?'

'Let's use my explanation,' Astoria said at once excitedly. When the older girls looked puzzled, she sighed and said, in a tone denoting the obvious, 'We'll say that Harry wants to date Daphne - end of dilemma.'

'Why do you insist on throwing wild monkeys into my life?' Daphne asked her sister with an exasperated glare.

'It's not like Potter's bad-looking, Daph - though his wardrobe certainly does need some long overdue work,' Tracey said with an evil grin, which was mirrored by Thea.

'But I don't want to date him,' Daphne insisted with a roll of her eyes.

'Good, because that would be the catch,' Thea said excitedly. 'Since you have no interest in him, it would be easy for you to say that you're just stringing him along, trying to find out all of his weaknesses before you put him down - the perfect story to get Malfoy or anyone else off our backs!' She clapped her hands.

'That's true,' Daphne acknowledged slowly after she had thought it through, 'but why me? You or Tracey or even Tori could do just as well.'

Daphne smiled when she saw the other girls' faces tense slightly; she knew that there was indeed no reason for any of them not to take up the task of convincing the rest of their house that they were still very much in the anti-Potter camp, rather than having migrated towards neutrality.

'Actually,' she continued, smirking evilly at her sister, whose eyes widened as she sensed danger, 'I think you'd be the best choice, Tori. Since Malfoy does indeed know you have a crush on him, it'll seem like you're derailing Potter because you want to impress the blonde ponce; that'll stroke his ego quite a bit, and I know that Malfoy loves nothing more than that. It'll make him blinder than he normally is.'

Astoria inwardly groaned at her sister's words, knowing that she was perfectly right since she herself agreed with her logic - as did Tracey and Thea.

'Alright, I'll do it,' she conceded. 'I may as well have a fake relationship while I don't have a real one, right?'

* * *

'You've gone barmy,' Ron said resolutely, convinced that he had hit the nail on the head.

Harry, who had been bent over his Astronomy essay, sighed and put his quill down. He sat back and turned to look at Ron; he could sense Hermione watching him keenly as well.

'No, I haven't,' he said. 'In fact, I think I'm seeing reason more than I ever have before.'

'You call going to sit at the Slytherin table reasonable?' asked Ron incredulously, his eyes widened in disbelief. 'Harry, there wasn't a wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin; they're all just Dark wizards waiting to happen.'

'What about Wormtail?' Harry countered, a heavy frown on his face. 'He was a Gryffindor, but need I remind you that he's one of the reasons I don't have parents?'

Ron wisely fell silent at that. He looked to Hermione for help; she shook her head, seeming determined to remain an observer.

'I don't think it's fair to say that every Slytherin is Dark, evil or generally a bad person,' Harry firmly. He was very determined to get his point across to his friends and make them understand what he was doing and why he was doing it. 'Davis, Greengrass and Runcorn have never done anything to us.'

'Are you kidding me? What about all those times they laughed it up at us with Malfoy and his cronies?'

'Yeah, they have laughed whenever we've been embarrassed or anything bad has happened to us,' Harry said, 'but they themselves never instigated anything against us, did they? Everyone is suspicious of every Slytherin; wouldn't it make sense for them to group up with each other just to survive? That would hardly work if they were seen to be divided. I think it's just a show; there's no way they can all be friendly with each other - just look at me and Seamus - or Dark, or pureblood supremacists. Some of them are half-bloods, and I'm sure that there are a couple of Muggleborns there as well.'

'You're losing it, Harry,' Ron said, shaking his head. 'I've never heard of a Muggleborn Slytherin.'

'Well, of course you haven't; would you advertise that you were Muggleborn when you belong to a house where they're regarded as barely worth dirt?' Harry turned to Hermione, who was looking very thoughtful at Harry's words. 'Correct me if I'm wrong, Hermione, but I seem to remember that it was Gryffindor that came up with the Sorting Hat after Slytherin had left the school.'

'Yes, that's right,' the bushy-haired girl confirmed with a nod.

'I wouldn't put it past Gryffindor, who definitely didn't agree with Slytherin's ideas on blood purity, to leave blood status out of the way the Hat sorts students, so it stands to reason that there must be or must have been a few Muggleborns in Slytherin House. Slytherins are supposed to be cunning, though, so I'd bet that its Muggleborn members would learn very fast not to reveal what they are; they're probably masquerading as half-bloods or purebloods whose families don't reside in Britain. No one would have any way of proving otherwise short of forcing them to show everyone where and how they lived.'

'You seem to have thought a lot about this, Harry,' Hermione observed, watching the bespectacled boy closely.

'I have,' confirmed Harry, smiling in her direction. 'Actually, I've been thinking about a lot of things ever since that lecture you gave me after I shouted at you about the Defense group.' A pink blush crept up into Hermione's cheeks, which only served to widen Harry's smile. 'I'll tell you all about it, but first there are some things I'd like to do.'

'Harry, we can't have _Slytherins_ in the Defense group,' Ron said pleadingly. 'They'll rat us out to Umbridge -'

'Ron, Umbridge already knows about the group, remember?' Hermione said. 'She'll suspect that we're going to go on with it despite the Educational Decree, so it really wouldn't do us any harm if someone does tell her, will it?'

'Exactly,' Harry said even as Ron glared at Hermione for refuting his statement. He wasn't about to give up, though.

'There are Death Eater kids in Slytherin,' Ron insisted. 'You'll teach them, and they'll use what they learned to hurt us, Harry.'

'Like I said, the Slytherins can't _all_ be bad - that's literally impossible, Ron. Besides, isn't this all about teaching people to defend themselves and people they care about? Doesn't _everyone_ deserve that chance, Slytherin or not?'

'Mate, they'll ruin everything,' Ron tried again. Harry, however, had thought this through quite a lot, and was not going to allow himself to be swayed.

'You can't possibly be sure of that, Ron; you and I are both rubbish at Divination, you know.' That caused Hermione to snicker and playfully roll her eyes. 'You wanted me to lead this group, and that's exactly what I'm doing: I'm making a decision. I won't allow myself to become biased against people when I don't even truly know them. If I did that, we'd have a lot fewer members than we already do.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see that Hermione was regarding him with no small amount of pride, whereas Ron looked faintly like he was about to be sick.

'I don't know, Harry, I don't think I can work with Slytherins,' he said, shaking his head.

'For pete's sake, Ronald, this isn't about house rivalries; it's about passing our exams and protecting the things we hold close to ourselves.' Hermione, it seemed, had had enough; she was now glaring at Ron as though she would dearly like to slap him. Ron did not seem at all cowed; in fact, he looked even more sure that he was right.

'Look, I'm going to bed. We'll talk later, okay?' And with that, the youngest Weasley boy got to his feet and went hastily towards the fifth year boys' dormitory.

Harry smiled sadly. 'I'd wanted things to go a lot smoother than that.'

Hermione gently put a hand on his arm. 'He'll come around,' she said with a smile of her own.

'Yeah, I hope so.' Harry went back to his Astronomy essay, quite aware that Hermione kept glancing at him every ten seconds or so. He knew that she wanted to talk to him, but was nervous to do so. He also had something to say to her, but it would have to wait for a while; there was someone else he needed to speak with first.

They had worked in silence for about half an hour when the person he was waiting for finally appeared in the common room. He must have visibly tensed for Hermione was now staring at him with worry written on her face. He gave her a reassuring smile as he pulled out his wand and said, picturing the very best results he could, '_Orchideous_!' A vibrant bouquet of red roses burst from the wand tip and he smiled even as Hermione frowned in confusion. Harry got to his feet, took a deep breath, well aware of the possibility of everything blowing up in his face, and strode towards his target, flowers in hand.

'Hi, Parvati,' he said, trying to sound as confident and cheerful as he possibly could.

'Hi, Harry,' Parvati said with a small smile as the group of four girls looked up at him and eyed the roses curiously. 'Are those for me?' she asked jokingly.

Harry would have smiled at that if he weren't so nervous. 'As a matter of fact, they are.'

Just like at dinner with the Slytherin girls, Harry would normally have laughed at the expression that came over Parvati's face. He was, however, determined not to screw up, and so kept his mirth down as much as he could.

'Are you serious? _You're_ giving _me_ flowers?' the Indian girl asked incredulously, eyes wide as the other girls began to whisper among themselves.

'Yeah. You see, I was recently on the receiving end of a Hermione lecture -' The girls smirked at this. '- and I took a long hard look at myself as a result. I realized that I leave a lot to be desired, and decided to try and better myself. As part of that, I'd like to sincerely apologize for how I treated you last year at the Yule Ball. You didn't deserve that at all, and I really am sorry. I have no excuse, and I'm willing to give you a free shot at hexing me or anything else to make it up to you.'

Parvati looked simply gob-smacked as Harry handed her the roses. Buying herself some time, she smelled the flowers, and Harry was pleased to see her eyes close in appreciation of their scent. By this time, he had gathered the attention of most of his fellow Gryffindors, and he could feel their eyes piercing into his back. He mentally smiled as he heard them begin to whisper, no doubt talking about how full of surprises Harry Potter was today.

'Thank you, Harry,' Parvati said earnestly. She stood up and promptly hugged him; feeling very self-conscious but determined to have everything go well, Harry hesitantly wrapped his arms around her. When she broke the hug, he saw that Parvati was beaming as though she had been declared Minister of Magic and he immediately knew that he had done the right thing by apologizing. 'I don't want to hex you, but maybe you could do me a favor?'

'Sure,' Harry said with a smile, privately praying that it wouldn't be anything that would get him in trouble; he really didn't need to be more firmly in Umbridge's grip than he already was.

She looked a little nervous as she said, 'This isn't anything against Ron and Hermione, Harry, but I think we'd all like it if you were a little more friendly with the rest of us. We've been in the same house for four years and I barely know anything about you.'

Harry smiled again. 'That's actually part of my "be the best Harry Potter you can be" plan. I'm sorry if I've seemed…snobbish in the past.' He said this last part looking around at the girls Parvati had been seating with, who he knew were all in his year. Parvati's request did, however, make him aware that she had carried genuine feelings for him and he once again berated himself for his behavior at the Yule Ball. He decided that another small gesture was in order, if only to allow him to stop kicking himself. He gave them a courteous nod, bid them a pleasant evening and went back to sit next to Hermione.

She was beaming as widely as Parvati.

'You apologized for how the Yule Ball went.' She wasn't asking. Harry confirmed the statement with a nod and turned to look at her. She must have seen something in his expression, for she suddenly looked a little unsure of herself.

'I think I owe you an apology as well, Hermione,' he said.

'What? Why?' his bushy-haired friend asked, eyes wide.

Harry paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, and explained, 'I haven't really been the friend that you deserve; I realized that after the lecture you gave me. You've always been there for me, helping me wherever you can, but I haven't done the same for you.'

'Harry -' Hermione began. She stopped when Harry raised a hand, asking her to let him finish. When she nodded, Harry continued, 'You've always done your best to help me when I've been down in the dumps, so focused on feeling sorry for myself that I don't actually do anything about what it is that's bothering me. You're always looking out for me, and I haven't thanked you enough for it. When you got the Firebolt confiscated by Professor McGonagall in third year, I got angry at you instead of seeing that you only wanted to keep me safe. I was a prat. Last year, I didn't stick up for you when Ron laid into you about dating Krum, even though I knew Ron was wrong. I was a prat again. This year, I've been doing a lot of whining about Dumbledore, the Order, the Ministry and Umbridge, but you're the one who actually did something about it - your idea for the Defense group. I was an insufferable prat. You're always helping me come up with solutions to my problems, Hermione, but I've never actually been there for you, never helped you with your problems. I'm really sorry. I won't be that guy any more; I promise I'll be the friend you deserve from now on.'

Halfway through his speech, Hermione had started to cry silently. The sight of female tears still made him uncomfortable, but he was again determined not to foul up his attempts to rectify the mistakes of his past. He was very ashamed of how he had been taking his rage and dissatisfaction out on his friends, and resolved to lay the blame exactly where it should be - and do something about the situation when it so obviously irked him.

Before he knew what was happening, Harry had been enveloped in a tight hug eerily reminiscent of Mrs Weasley. He hugged Hermione back as she cried with what he hoped was joy; she occasionally sniffled but was otherwise silent. He could feel everyone's eyes on him again and idly wondered what sort of rumors would start going around about him this time. When Hermione pulled back from him, she was smiling widely. 'Thank you, Harry. You have no idea how much those words mean to me.' She then gave a little laugh and asked, 'What's happening to you?'

'I have no idea,' Harry answered with a laugh of his own.

'Well, whatever it is, I like it.'

Harry smiled and turned back to his Astronomy essay. He needed to finish it as quickly as possible; he had a few short letters that he needed to write before he went to bed, as he needed them to be delivered with the morning post. He also needed to talk to Ron and make him see that he was trying to do the right thing.

'Wait a minute, how come _I_ didn't get flowers?'

Harry laughed.


	3. Young Actress

'What were you all doing with Potter?'

Daphne looked up from her book to see Draco Malfoy standing before her with that infuriating sneer spread across his pointed face as he regarded her and her friends. Daphne dearly looked forward to the day that she would be allowed to hex the pompous arse within an inch of his life. But today, she knew, was not that day.

'Speak to Astoria,' she said shortly, going back to her book even while she felt a twinge of guilt at sending Malfoy her sister's way.

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. 'You need to learn to be more respectful to your superiors, Greengrass.'

Oh, how she hated this boy. She would never, not in a million years, understand why her sister had a crush on him. She wondered why she hadn't aligned herself with Potter earlier; she would have had plenty of opportunity to cause Malfoy a lot of pain. She forced her mouth to curve into a hard smile as she looked back up at him. 'I'm sorry,' she said, 'the OWLs have got me a little stressed out.'

Malfoy gave a curt nod and a disgusting smile, clearly pleased that he had gotten her to apologize. Daphne was more than a little angry with herself, but she also knew that Malfoy wielded a lot of power in Slytherin; it wouldn't do to cross him at the moment, not when she was yet to truly form an alliance with Potter. He looked around at them once more and strode towards where Astoria was sitting with her friends doing homework.

Thea and Tracey were staring at her sympathetically.

'That must have hurt,' the latter said, shaking her head.

'We can't antagonize him - not yet, anyway,' Daphne said as she continued reading her book.

On the other side of the common room, Astoria was steeling her resolve for what she knew she had to do. Her heart was beating just a little bit faster as it always did whenever she was in close proximity to Malfoy - only this time she was fervently reminding herself what a terrible person he was. He was walking purposefully towards her, no doubt to ask about what Harry had wanted when he came to the Slytherin table. She molded her features to take on a calm demeanor at complete odds with the plethora of emotions raging inside her. She already had a plan for dealing with Malfoy, and she was about to execute it. She would not, however, enjoy it. Neither would Daphne, she was sure.

'Greengrass,' Malfoy said when he had reached her. Astoria took a silent breath and looked up at him, putting on her most alluring smile.

'Hi, Draco,' she said in her sultriest voice, keenly aware that her friends were smirking at her. 'What brings you here?'

'What was Potter doing talking to you and your sister at dinner?' Malfoy asked.

Astoria widened her smile; she stood, took Draco's hand in her own and whispered in his ear, 'Let's talk in private, shall we?' She then led him towards the fifth year boys' dormitory. Her brain was screaming at her hand to let go even as her heart went faster. How could she like this vile person? He couldn't even address her politely, for Merlin's sake! She needed to drop her infatuation with him, especially in light of the Dark Lord's return; she did not want to be involved in any way with an aspiring Death Eater. She needed to get over him. Later, though; for now, she had a role to play.

'Alright,' Malfoy said once he had cast a few spells to make sure that they weren't overheard, 'what's this about, Greengrass?'

Astoria bit her bottom lip to stop herself from telling Malfoy to put his wand up his…well, she didn't think he would appreciate that. Instead, she crossed the room to sit herself down on what she knew was his bed and crossed her legs while leaning back using her arms. She had done away with her robes and was clad only in her uniform, minus sweater and tie, the top two buttons of her shirt undone. She planned to tease Malfoy a little in order to get his attention - and it was working; he was staring at her almost hungrily, apparently unable to look away. She felt very uncomfortable under his gaze, but forced the feeling down; she had a job to do.

'Potter came to have a little chat with me,' Astoria said, injecting as much confidence as she could into her voice as she smirked. 'It seems that everyone's favorite Gryffindor has a certain…interest in me.'

'Interest?' Malfoy still had his eyes glued anywhere but to her face. She shuddered once more to think that she had a crush on him and silently vowed to be shot of those particular feelings by the end of the month. Daphne would certainly be happy.

'Yes, he asked me out,' she clarified, idly examining her fingernails to keep up her charade of indifference towards Harry.

'What?' Malfoy's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed as an accusatory expression crossed his face. 'Don't tell me you accepted that filthy son of a Mudblood.'

'I did - for you.' Malfoy's face went from surprised to outraged to confused, just as she had expected. 'This is the perfect chance to show everyone how pathetic Potter really is. I knew you wouldn't want to waste such an opportunity, so I took him up on his offer to get to know each other better.'

Malfoy got a calculating look in his eye as he thought about what she had said. 'You mean you're playing with Potter?'

Astoria nodded, smiling as best as she could. She felt terrible for doing and saying these things, but she knew that she needed to for the results they wanted.

'And you're doing this for me, you say?' She nodded again. 'Why?'

Astoria got to her feet, crossed the room, took Draco's hands in her own and looked into his eyes. 'Do you really need to ask me that, Draco?' she said breathlessly.

A nasty smirk came over his face. It revolted Astoria, but she forced herself to keep smiling.

'No,' he said as he raised a hand and threaded it through her brown tresses, 'I suppose I don't.'

He pulled her towards him for a kiss but Astoria stopped him with a solitary finger to his lips. 'Not yet,' she said. 'I want our first kiss to be in front of Potter - to make it special, you know?'

If she didn't know that she was acting, Astoria was sure that she would have been mightily disgusted with herself. The look of satisfaction on Malfoy's face, however, actually made her skin crawl.

'I knew you were more worthwhile than that sister of yours, Greengrass,' he said appreciatively. 'Do whatever you need to; I think it's long past time Potter was taken down to where he belongs: at my feet.'

Astoria nodded, mirroring Malfoy's evil smile. He gave her one last sweeping glance and left the dormitory, looking thoroughly satisfied.

Astoria sat down on the nearest bed and took many deep, calming breaths. She prided herself in her acting skills, which she had been told she inherited from her paternal grandmother, but she knew that she had been very close to screaming and running for the hills. When Malfoy had thought that he had a chance to humiliate Harry, the air had been filled with his malice; it had poured off of him literally in waves, and it made her stomach churn. Daphne had been completely right: if she pursued someone like Malfoy, she would become someone that she would normally loathe. It was a good thing, then, that she had already decided to kill off her feelings for the blonde boy. It seemed that she had managed to convince him of her "plan", so he would leave her, Daphne, Tracey and Thea alone if they were seen in Harry's company, thinking that the others were in on it as well. The true task would be to keep the guise up - and that would include telling Harry what she had done.

She thought about what Daphne would have said if she saw her almost throwing herself at Malfoy and was immensely glad that her sister hadn't been there to witness the event unfold. Once her heart rate was back to normal and she felt mostly calm, Astoria left the dormitory but instead of rejoining her friends, went to her own dormitory; she was desperate for a hot shower. When she got there, she mercifully found herself alone - though that didn't last long; Daphne came charging through the door a moment later.

'What happened?' she demanded, her blue eyes flashing dangerously. 'You were both up there for quite a while, and then Malfoy comes down looking like -' She broke off, suddenly looking horrified. 'Tori, please tell me you didn't…'

Astoria stared at her elder sister for a long time before she understood what she was asking. 'No - Merlin, no,' she said swiftly. 'I wouldn't do that. You _know_ I wouldn't do that! How could you even _think_ that?'

'I'm sorry. It's just…I know how long you've had a crush on him -'

'That's about to end,' Astoria said firmly. 'He's disgusting; I want nothing to do with him.'

Daphne looked so happy one might have thought that Astoria had just given her a million Galleons.

'Finally,' she said, throwing her hands up in celebration. 'It took you long enough. What did you see in him, anyway?'

'He has a lot of power in the house,' answered Astoria slowly. 'He can be shrewd when he needs to be, and he commands respect -'

'Through people's fear of his daddy,' her sister pointed out.

'True. Well, it doesn't matter what I thought of him before; I now know that he's a creep. I wanted to tease him, to appeal to that ego of his, but still…you should have seen the way he was looking at me, Daph. The only time he looked me in the face was when he wanted to eat my mouth.'

'I don't need the mental picture of Malfoy kissing you, thanks - I think I might be sick.' Daphne paused. 'What exactly did you do, Tori?'

Astoria told her. She expected Daphne to go ballistic, to say that she had gone too far, or to go and hex Malfoy for daring to put his hands on her younger sister. Daphne did none of those things, however; instead, she sighed and shook her head.

'I really don't get how you can fake doing things like that without batting an eye, Tori - but I guess we should be thankful that you can.'

'Aren't you mad?' Astoria asked, her eyes wide.

'In the past I would be,' answered Daphne, 'but you're fourteen now, Astoria; you're not a little girl. I know better than anyone that you can take care of yourself; you don't need me to shield you from anything any more. But I hope you know that I'll always be there for you.'

'I never doubted it,' Astoria said with a very bright smile. 'I'm not too old for a sister-sister hug, am I?'

Daphne laughed and stepped forward to embrace her younger sister. When they finally pulled away from each other, they were both grinning from ear to ear. Just like any other sisters, they often grated on each other's nerves, but Astoria knew that she would never trade Daphne for anyone or anything in the world - and she also knew that her sister felt the same way about her.

'Keeping this up is going to be tough. D'you think you can do it?' Daphne asked, concern clouding her normally clear eyes.

'I think so; it'll be the perfect way to play with Malfoy - I'll be conspiring with the person he hates the most, after all.' Astoria took on a thoughtful expression and then said, 'Actually, now that I've decided I don't want to be with Malfoy, maybe I should take an honest crack at Harry.'

'What?'

Astoria smiled at the expression on her sister's face. 'What, do you want him? I'd be only too happy to get out of your way, dear sister.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Daphne scowled.

'How is it ridiculous? You can't deny that Harry's good-looking, Daph. And honestly speaking, you really could do with a boy in your life - you and Thea. You both really need some more adoration in your lives.'

'Have you been talking to Tracey?'

'You really should listen to her, she knows what she's talking about,' said Astoria with a grin. 'Daphne, tell me: how many dates have you been on before and after the Yule Ball?'

Daphne opened her mouth to reply - then froze. She frowned.

'Exactly,' Astoria said with a small laugh. 'Now tell me: how many times have you kissed someone?' Her sister was looking very uncomfortable now, which only served to prove Astoria's point. 'Exactly. I'm two years younger yet I've dated and kissed a lot more than you, Daph. What are you so afraid of?'

'I'm not afraid,' said Daphne.

'Then why are you so against the idea of going on a date with Harry?' Astoria asked curiously.

'I don't feel anything for him. In fact, all I really know about him is what he looks like.'

'I didn't say you should set out to make him your boyfriend right away, just go on a few casual dates with him and see what happens and how it feels like - then you can decide whether you like him or not.'

'But isn't he _your_ fake boyfriend now?'

'I only told Malfoy that I agreed to get to know him better,' Astoria said, shaking her head. 'I'm essentially doing - or pretending to, at least - what I'm now telling you to do.'

'But why are you insisting on Potter?' Daphne asked.

'Because as far as I can tell, he has more or less the same amount of experience as you, so you're on equal ground,' Astoria explained, smiling. 'He also strikes me as someone who you could really have feelings for - that goes for me as well, as a matter of fact. I'm seriously thinking about trying it out; why not get together with Malfoy's arch-nemesis if I can? Plus, I can honestly say that I'm tired of the Slytherin boys; a breath of fresh air would be most welcome.'

'You do what you want,' Daphne said with a disapproving sniff, 'but I'm fine, thank you very much.'

'If you say so. Just don't say I didn't warn you of my intentions, dear sister.'


	4. Burning Bridges

Harry awoke much earlier than he normally did with a smile on his face. Things were going far better than he could have hoped or planned. He had been the last one left in the common room, well past midnight, when he fell asleep writing letters to a myriad of people. He had been awakened by Dobby the house-elf, who had volunteered to return Hedwig to him after Professor Grubbly-Plank had restored her wing. Dobby had then revealed to him the location of a place called the Room of Requirement, and it sounded like exactly what he needed to make the Defense group work. He was planning to have a look at it later in the afternoon; as it was a Friday, he was free to do whatever he wanted from lunch time onwards.

He got out of bed, making sure not to rouse his dorm-mates or Hedwig, who had flat out refused to go to the Owlery and was snoozing on his nightstand, and went to the bathroom to take a shower. With that done he put on his uniform, threw his robes over it and double-checked that he had everything he needed for the day in his backpack. Satisfied, he left the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory and hastily made his way to the Owlery.

He was early enough that more than a few of the owls were just returning from a night of hunting; some were already asleep, while others were doing their best to stay awake, no doubt putting of their rest to deliver the morning post. It was this last group that he needed, and so he tied a letter each to a handful of school owls. He issued them his instructions and they hooted their understanding. One of them, an excitable brown owl, took off through the window at once, bearing Harry's message to Sirius and Remus. He watched it go until it was a speck in the horizon, hoping that the two Marauders were doing well. He watched as the sun made its appearance and began to rise in the sky, thinking about all that he wanted to do today and hoping that it would all go well. Deciding to get an early breakfast, Harry left the Owlery and went down to the Great Hall.

There were only about two dozen students already there, mostly seventh years and Ravenclaws, who had a reputation for rising early to get a chance at going to the library before lessons began. Only four other Gryffindors were present, as well as five Hufflepuffs and four Slytherins. He was unfamiliar with his many of his senior housemates and so took his usual seat away from them. He fixed himself a plate of eggs, bacon and pancakes to go down with a glass of pumpkin juice. He once again thought about his plans for the Defense group - plans that he hadn't yet discussed with anyone but intended to tonight, at their first meeting. He knew that many of the people who had already expressed interest in the group thought of it as nothing more than a means to pass their OWLs and NEWTs. He, however, knew what it truly meant, and he was going to make sure that it served its purpose as best as it could. He wondered how Ron and Hermione would react to his changing the dynamics of the group when they had immediately warmed up to the idea while he had been hesitant. Hermione would be surprised no doubt, but he felt sure that she would approve, seeing as how she had basically forced him to take the lead. As for Ron…well, first he needed to talk to him about Daphne, Astoria, Thea and Tracey joining the group; he didn't want Ron to miss out on something so important out of stubbornness.

He had never had any interaction with many of the people that he had sent his missives to. Harry knew that they would hold varying opinions of him, and so he hoped that they would meet with him out of sheer curiosity if nothing else. The more members they had in the Defense group, the greater the chance that his plans would succeed. He was also aware, though, that he might very well lose members as soon as he revealed his intentions to the group. It would set him back, no doubt, but he didn't think that trying to hide what he really wanted to do was going to work out well for anyone. He had to be honest. If there were those who couldn't work with his ideas, then they needed to go.

'Harry?' Harry looked around to see Hermione taking a seat beside him, her face crossed between extreme surprise and worry. 'I never would have imagined you being down here so early if it wasn't for the fact that I can actually see you. You went to bed even later than me last night; are you okay? You didn't have nightmares again, did you? Are you tired?'

Harry smiled at the bushy-haired girl's concern for him. 'I'm okay, Hermione. I just had a few letters I wanted to send off, that's all.'

'But why so early?'

'A lot of them are going to be delivered with the morning post,' explained Harry.

Hermione raised an inquisitive eyebrow. 'What are you up to, Harry?'

'You'll find out - at the first Defense meeting today.' He smiled again when Hermione instantly donned a look of excitement.

'Oh! Harry, that's wonderful! And it's a Friday, so we could have all afternoon if we wanted -'

'No, no, we're going to be meeting at six,' Harry corrected, laughing when Hermione pouted. 'I have a few things to take care of before the meeting actually starts, and I'll want you there for one of them.'

'_One_ of them?'

'I'll tell you everything later, I promise.'

Hermione stared at him for a long time before shaking her head and saying, 'You're being very cryptic, Harry, but I suppose I can wait for a few hours.' She suddenly frowned. 'Wait, where are we going to meet? We haven't found a place yet.'

'I think I have,' said Harry. When Hermione looked expectant, he continued, 'Dobby told me about it last night; apparently it's a room that only the house-elves regularly use. He said that a lot of students and staff have found it, but they never can again because they don't actually know that it's always there or how to get in.'

'What is this room?' Hermione asked, highly intrigued.

'It's called the Room of Requirement. It can equip itself for whatever the user needs.'

Hermione looked very impressed and excited, no doubt itching to go see the Room for herself. They ate together while chatting about inconsequential things, ignoring Umbridge as best as they could as she persisted in watching them closely. The Great Hall filled with students not long after, and just as it hit eight o'clock, the morning post arrived.

Harry watched as five of the school owls he had selected fluttered down onto the Gryffindor table. There were mixed reactions to his letters: Fred and George Weasley grinned and sent him identical nods; Fay Dunbar and Sally-Anne Perks looked down the table at him incredulously; Seamus Finnegan ripped his letter apart and sent him a cold sneer. He had expected a few negative responses, but it still made him sigh sadly.

'Harry, why are so many people staring at you?' Hermione asked slowly.

'Because I sent them letters,' answered Harry, looking around to see occupants of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables - all in his year - also giving him highly surprised looks.

'What about?'

'I want them to join the Defense group.' Hermione again looked highly interested, and Harry thought that he should explain himself a little if he didn't wish for her to kill him out of wanting to know what was going on. 'I sent letters to the fifth years who didn't come at the Hog's Head that day to meet with me after lunch. I want to convince them to join.'

'Why?' Hermione asked.

'Because I don't think it would be fair to leave them out of it, not when they have OWLs to worry about just like us; I've also asked them to get the seventh years to come as well if they're willing.'

Hermione was very pleased with him if the smile on her face was any indication. 'We might end up with a lot more members. Are you sure it'll be all right?'

'To be honest, I want as many members as possible.'

Hermione looked surprised. 'You only wanted me and Ron at first, and even when you agreed to others you seemed to think that the ones we already had were too many. Why the change of heart? Or do I have to wait for that explanation as well?'

Harry smiled. 'You'll have to wait, I'm afraid; some of the things I have to say will apply to everyone in the group, so I think it'd be best if they all, including you, heard it at the same time.'

Hermione nodded and said, 'That's fine - but I expect many many details, Harry.'

'Of course. I'll even get you enough flowers to cover your entire dormitory; I know the suspense is killing you, and I _do_ owe you flowers.'

Hermione laughed, shook her head and said, 'Harry, you don't need to do things like that to let me know you care about me - I know that very well. But I suppose hearing it more often wouldn't hurt.'

'Of course. But what if I _want_ to get you more flowers than you could possibly know what to do with?'

'Then I won't stop you,' answered Hermione cheekily.

A few seconds later, the two friends thought, _Wait, were we just flirting with each other? _They fell silent, Harry suddenly very keen on rummaging through his backpack and Hermione on reading the _Daily Prophet_.

They had hugged, they had held hands - though that was often in the face of imminent pain and death - and Hermione had even kissed him at the end of last year, though it had only been on the cheek. Now they had, for the first time, engaged in some light flirting - at least he thought he was flirting; he didn't really have enough experience with the opposite sex to consider himself an expert - or even proficient. He was quite clueless when it came to girls, he knew, but he felt sure that Hermione had been flirting with him, brief though it had been - and he didn't mind it at all. He sneaked a look at his friend, who had her head bent down more than necessary to read the paper. The Yule Ball had really opened his eyes to the fact that Hermione was very beautiful and attractive; his eyes had been clouded over by the bookish image he was so used to that he hadn't noticed it at all in their four years of knowing each other. He really did need to appreciate her more.

'Good morning, Harry!'

He looked up to see Astoria Greengrass beaming at him; she was already attracting curious glances as she easily sat down next to him.

'Morning, Astoria,' Harry replied. 'It's good that you're here, actually; I need your help.'

'Oh? What a coincidence; I need your help as well.' She smiled. 'What can I do for you?'

Harry looked back at Hermione and said hesitantly, 'Er, say, Hermione, could you give me that list of members everyone signed at the Hog's Head?' She delved into her book bag and came up with the list, which she handed to him. He then handed it to Astoria. 'I need you, Daphne, Tracey and Thea to sign this if you don't mind.'

'That's fine, but why would you want to keep a list of members? It would be an incriminating piece of evidence if someone like Umbridge found it, don't you think?' Astoria looked at the two Gryffindors and saw that Hermione had a light blush on her cheeks. She puzzled over this for a moment before a suspicion began to take shape in her mind. She smirked. 'My my, Granger, what have you done to this list?'

'I'm protecting us,' Hermione retorted at once.

Harry frowned for a moment before he remembered something. 'That's right, you said something about getting acne if someone ratted us out.'

'Acne?' Astoria frowned. 'Why not jinx the list to put anyone who tries to discuss the group with anyone who isn't part of it under the Tongue-Tying Curse?'

'That was my first thought, but I haven't been able to find the correct runes for it,' Hermione said sadly. She looked positively crushed about having failed to do what she had wanted.

'Maybe you should talk to my sister; she loves runes, she can't shut up about them - it's bloody annoying if you ask me. Our mother's sort of a linguist, and she taught Daphne a lot. She'd be able to help you, I think.'

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. 'That explains a lot: she always beats me in Ancient Runes.'

Harry was shocked. 'She does?'

Hermione smiled. 'I'm not omniscient you know, Harry.'

Harry was shocked. 'You're not?'

Hermione laughed and swatted his arm playfully, shaking her head at his antics. Astoria watched them with an eyebrow quirked in interest.

'Well, I would talk to Daphne, but…' Hermione trailed off.

Astoria smiled knowingly. 'But you're afraid that she'll bite your head off if you even try, am I right?' When Hermione nodded, she laughed. 'Believe me, I understand. I can talk to her about it if you like; I'll be taking the list to her anyway, and I'm sure that she'd want to be part of making any arrangements to minimize the risk of our getting caught.'

Harry turned to Hermione, who looked mightily concerned. He looked back at the young Slytherin and asked, 'Astoria, do I have your word that anything Daphne will do will be in our best interests?'

For an answer, Astoria took a quill out of her pocket and wrote her name at the bottom of the list. This seemed to satisfy Hermione, as she nodded.

'Okay, now that I've helped you,' Astoria said brightly, 'it's time you helped me.' She told Harry what she and the others had decided on as a story for why Harry was suddenly spending time with Slytherins - and what she had said to Malfoy last night.

Harry stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

'Harry, this is the part where you say something,' Astoria supplied, grinning broadly.

Harry cleared his throat. 'Er, why did you do that?'

Astoria put on a look of outrage and said hotly, 'What, you don't think that I'm good enough to have a date with you?'

'Wha -? No, I er - I just meant…I -' Harry's attempts to backpedal died in his throat as the Slytherin erupted in a fit of giggles.

'Wow, you are so easy, Harry,' she said, shaking her head. She noticed that Hermione Granger was also smiling; she rolled her eyes knowingly at her, and the older girl mirrored the gesture.

'Don't do that,' Harry said weakly.

'I'll try,' Astoria said innocently. 'So what do you say, Harry? Would you be willing to take an impressionable young maiden - me, in case that wasn't clear - out on a few dates to make Malfoy think he's got one over on you then kick him in his arse later?'

Harry smiled. 'Yeah, I think I can get behind that.'

'Excellent!' Astoria caused the Great Hall to get overrun with even more whispers as she put her arms around him in a hug and kissed his cheek. 'And I'll have you know that this will have to be an honest effort, Harry; you aren't allowed to skip out on any date etiquette just because this is an arrangement, alright?' She smiled when Harry nodded, seemingly too surprised by what she had done to speak. 'Good. I promise I'll do my best as well. I'll see you both later.' She got to her feet and went back to the Slytherin table.

Hermione's eyebrows were raised as far as they could go without becoming a part of her bushy hair. 'That was unexpected.'

'You're telling me,' Harry replied weakly. He shook his head of his confusion and then asked, 'Hey, where's Ron? I wanted to talk to him.'

As though in response to his query, he spotted the boy himself making a hasty retreat out of the Great Hall. Hermione had also seen him and was frowning deeply.

'You don't think he's upset about Astoria, do you?'

'Honestly? I do,' Hermione answered, shaking her head. She suddenly fixed Harry with a "do-what-I-tell-you sort" of look. 'I expect you to treat her as best as you can when you spend time together, Harry, tricking Malfoy or not. She really is pretty, and she could be good for you; I know you've only agreed to a few dates, but you never know.'

Deciding to test the waters of his new perceived boldness and resolve to appreciate his friend more, Harry said, 'You're really pretty too, Hermione.' A soft, pink blush came over her, and she looked very pleased; it seemed that he had once again struck gold. 'Come on,' he said with a smile, fighting not to turn red himself, 'let's catch up to Ron; I think I really need to talk to him.'

Hermione nodded and followed suit as Harry stood up and dashed out of the Great Hall. They hadn't gotten far before they spotted Ron heading for Charms, their first class for the day.

'Ron, wait a moment, will you?' Harry said when they had caught up to the red-headed boy. He turned around, hands stuffing his hands into his pockets. 'What?'

Harry was taken aback by his tone of voice - not to mention the expression on his face. He ignored both as best as he could, however, and said, 'Mate, we need to talk about this Slytherin thing -'

Talk about it?' Ron replied, looking as though he couldn't believe his ears. 'We don't need to "talk about it" - you've already decided everything yourself; I saw you with Greengrass, everyone did.'

'Ron, Astoria's a good person -'

'You only started talking to her yesterday!' Ron exclaimed. 'She's a Slytherin, Harry. She'll sell you out, you know that.'

'No, I don't know that,' said Harry firmly. 'I may have talked to her starting just yesterday, but I call tell that she's all right - all of those girls are. They haven't done anything to make me suspect or hate them.'

Ron shook his head and said derisively, 'I never thought I'd see you lose your head over a bunch of girls.'

'If I remember correctly, both you and Hermione wanted me to lead this Defense group, and that's exactly what I'm doing,' Harry said stiffly, starting to get angry.

'I'm not working with Slytherins, Harry; I don't like knives in my back. Either they go or I do.'

Harry would never have believed that Ron would give him an ultimatum - yet he had. 'Ron, you can't pass something like this up just because a couple of Slytherins have been included.'

'The only thing I'm passing up is their company. I can study Defense myself.'

'Goodness, Ronald, stop being so stubborn,' Hermione said hotly. 'Besides, you can't just teach yourself Defense; even Harry needed our help when he was preparing for the Tournament, remember?'

Ron got a very ugly look on his face. 'So, what, just because Harry can't do something it means that I can't do it too?'

Harry felt like another blow had just been rammed into his chest. Unbidden, memories of last year surfaced in his mind, memories of Ron abandoning him to the wrath of the rest of the school. Ron's jealousy. His incessant need to always compare himself to Harry and hungrily seek the fame and attention that he wanted for himself. He looked at Hermione, and he saw that she had closed her eyes; when she opened them again, Harry could swear that they were frozen solid. He had never seen Hermione look that way, and it scared him a little.

'You know, I honestly don't understand why I even bother with you - oh, that's right, I do: because - unfortunately for me - you're Harry's friend, and he's my friend too.'

It seemed that fate or some other cosmic force had decided that today was the day that Harry Potter would be continually surprised by his friends; he would never have imagined Hermione saying such a thing, and yet he did not doubt that she was telling the truth.

Ron seemed outraged. 'He was my friend first! He's my best friend!'

Hermione scoffed. 'Oh, yes, what a wonderful friend you are, Ronald. It isn't like you're constantly jealous of Harry; it isn't like you want everything he has, not even caring to think about what _Harry_ wants; it isn't like you _abandoned_ him last year when he really needed you; it isn't like you always second-guess whatever decision he makes that you don't like, instead of supporting him. Yes, you're a _wonderful_ best friend, Ronald!'

Harry stared. He knew, in the back of his mind, that Hermione was going to say something that would completely wreck the friendship they had all shared since they had felled that mountain troll in their first year - but then again, according to Hermione, she had never really felt that she and Ron were friends at all. Harry supposed that he should have known; they were constantly fighting, much as they had been when they were totally hostile towards each other in first year. Hermione seemed to have been holding all of this in for a long time, and she was finally letting it out. Harry found that he didn't dare try to stop her; honestly, he was afraid of what she might do to him.

And somewhere, deep in his heart, he was agreeing with her words.

'Let's not forget about what a _friend_ you've been to me, either,' Hermione screamed, attracting the attention of other students heading towards class. 'Always insulting me; you've never said an honest nice word to me - ever; always treating me terribly whenever I don't agree with you; always belittling me when I actually do the work I _want_ to do, just because _you_ can't be troubled to push yourself; always being a prat, always an arse, that's what you are to me, Ronald Weasley!'

Hermione took a deep breath and Harry thought that she might have finished her tirade, but he was mistaken; the floodgates had evidently been opened.

'And what was that last year? If you had a problem with someone else dating me, why did you never make an effort with me? Oh, no, you just thought that a "Hermione, you're a girl" thrown in when you were positively desperate for a date to the Ball would get me to throw myself all over you, is that it, Ron? And you even had the gall to think that there was _no one_ on this earth who would want to go to the Ball with me, and yet Harry's the one who had to get a date for you! Oh, if only you understood what irony meant, Ronald - but I don't think your puny brain would be capable of it.'

'Hermione…' Harry whispered, keenly aware of the crowd that had now surrounded them. Ron was getting redder and redder in the face as Hermione screamed and raged at him. Hermione, for her part, ignored Harry - or she might not have even been aware of the existence of anything else apart from the object of her wrath.

'You treated Padma so terribly and you didn't even apologize to her!' Harry coughed at this and looked down at his shoes; he was guilty of the same sin - well, treating Parvati badly, at least - and still felt bad about it. 'And then you went on to put Viktor down every opportunity you got when he had never done anything to you. Is that what you need to do to feel relevant, Ron - to make people small in your eyes so that you can be a little bigger, to prop yourself up?'

Ron, it seemed, had had enough. His hand made a motion towards his pocket, but Hermione was much faster; her wand was pointed at Ron's face and he froze, eying her hatefully. Harry looked around, fearful that a teacher might come.

'Give me a reason, Ron.'

It was barely a whisper, but everyone present heard Hermione clearly - and they shivered at her voice.

Hermione was looking at Ron as though she indeed would like nothing more than to curse him. 'I am done taking your nonsense, Ronald, I promise you that; say another bad word to me and I will make you regret it.' She took a deep breath. 'I'm going to leave you with a few wise words, Ron: you will _never_ have me, and you will _never_ hold a candle to Harry, so stop trying.' Everyone gasped at these words, Harry included. 'Even if he wasn't already a better wizard than you, he will _always_ be a better man, and that's what makes the two of you incomparable.'

Ron looked very stricken, and Harry could literally see their friendship crumbling to ashes before him. He brought his hands up to his face and let out a long breath that he hadn't been aware he had been holding. Everyone was silent, staring at the three friends that many had believed to be inseparable. The bell rang - no one cared…

'What's going on here? Shouldn't you be in class already?'

The crowd scattered instantly at Professor McGonagall's voice; Hermione gave Ron one last angry glare and quickly stalked off. Harry looked at who he was sure was now his former best friend.

'The Slytherins stay; whether or not you go is up to you.'

With that Harry hurried after Hermione. He was very shaken by her words, words that he knew she would never have spoken if she weren't in the most towering of tempers, but she was the one who was looking out for him, as she always did - and so with her he went.

Harry also knew that nothing she had said could ever be taken back.


	5. Measures

**Author's Notes:**

Hey, everyone, thanks for your interest in _The New Order_ so far :-) Just a few things to say before the chapter reading.

First, I'd really like to thank you guys for the reviews. I was pleasantly surprised by the response that this fic got, and it really made me eager to write more of it. The reviews have been great, and I can honestly say that your input helps me in shaping the story. I also like hearing from you, so thanks again :-)

Second, for any _The Life and Times of Linnea Potter _readers, thanks for your interest in both my stories :-) Rest assured that I am NOT dropping Linnea's tale in favor of _The New Order_. I haven't received any complaints or anything about this, but I thought I'd just put it out there. Chapter 18 will definitely be out this week and I will do my best to pick up the pace with Linnea.

Well, that's it, guys. Thanks again for reading my stories :-)

* * *

By the time half of the Charms lesson had gone by, Harry truly felt sorry for Professor Flitwick; no one was paying him a lick of attention, not even Hermione. Harry sat next to the usually religiously attentive girl at the front of the class, which he had suggested so as to avoid catching the eye of any of their classmates. She had readily agreed, but with actions rather than words; she hadn't made a peep since her shouting match with Ron.

His idea had evidently been a good one, for he could sense the probing stares of the other students on their backs - not to mention hear the whispers. He ignored it all, staring unseeingly at Professor Flitwick while occasionally glancing at Hermione. If he didn't know her better, he would think that she was asleep; her head was bent down over the desk, cradled in her arms. Her bushy hair masked her face, and he was afraid that she might be crying again - though obviously for a less joyous reason than his apology to her.

Professor Flitwick caught his eye and the diminutive Charms Master looked pointedly at Hermione, raising his eyebrows. Harry gave a sad smile and a barely perceptible shake of his head. The Head of Ravenclaw House seemed to take this as confirmation that something monumental had happened - Harry supposed that he had surely noticed that no one was at all interested in what he was saying - as he said, 'Well, I think we can break class early at this point. I'd like you all to stay here while you wait for your next class, though. Other than that, you're dismissed.'

It seemed the students had been waiting for this, for their whispers suddenly rose in octaves and Harry found it much more difficult to shut them all out. Hermione raised her head and Harry saw that she did indeed have tears in her eyes, though she was yet to allow them to fall.

'I'll have to apologize to Professor Flitwick,' she said quietly. When Harry didn't say anything, she looked around at him and said, looking very sad and frightened, 'It looks like our situations have reversed, Harry; I need to apologize to you too.'

Harry raised his eyebrows. 'Why would you think that?'

'Because I brought you into my fight with Ron. I shouldn't have done that; I just destroyed your friendship. I'll understand if you never want to speak to me again.'

Harry looked around and caught much of the class staring at the two of them; they quickly averted their eyes. Harry sighed and looked back at Hermione, who was looking more scared than Harry had ever seen her.

'Why _did_ you say that, Hermione?' Harry asked, keeping his voice down to a whisper so that no one would overhear them.

Hermione didn't need any clarification on his part and immediately knew just what he was asking. She wrung her fingers together, doing anything to avoid his gaze, which was proving to be quite a task. 'I - Last year I…I kind of started asking myself what it would be like if I dated either you or Ron.'

Harry didn't say anything; he was too surprised, both at her revelation and the fact that she would actually tell him such a thing. He watched her in silence as she gathered her thoughts. He didn't dare say anything as she looked desperately fragile at the moment - as though even a single word from him before she had told all she had to tell would break her.

The girl in question took a deep breath and said, as quietly as she could, 'I started thinking about it during the holidays before fourth year. I thought about how you and Ron would do as a boyfriend for me - that's when I truly realized how I really felt about Ron. I'm sorry, Harry, but he's never been a friend to me, and I have to say that I don't think he's at all good for you as well; I know you could do incredibly well in school and everything else if you really tried, but Ron always has you goofing off. He makes you waste your potential, Harry - and honestly, that's as much your fault as it is his.' She paused, looking at Harry to see if she had angered him, but he appeared calm at least, so she steeled herself to continue. 'I imagined us being together and it wasn't bad, but I didn't feel like we would last very long; we had years of knowing each other on our side, but I felt that what with my…obsession with knowledge and your less…serious attitude -' She glanced at Harry again but he still looked to be calm. '- we'd get annoyed with each other very fast, and I didn't want that; you're too important for me to lose, Harry. I didn't think I had _those_ kinds of feelings for you, anyway.

'So when you really started to show an interest in Cho, I cheered you on - and you fell flat on your face.' Hermione smiled as Harry nodded with a grimace. 'But I was jealous of Cho, of a lot of girls; I wanted someone to look at me that way too - then Viktor came along. He made me so happy I could barely think straight. But then you came along - the you I always hoped you would be; when I was helping you to train for the Tournament, I saw a whole new side of you. You were working your hardest, you were focused and driven. You didn't enter the Tournament of your own free will, but I could see that you really wanted to win - you weren't going to settle for a mediocre performance. I was so surprised by you - and so happy. You showed everyone what you were capable of, and I wasn't the only one who was cheering for you any more. I'm sure Viktor was more than annoyed with me at this point, because I would talk about you a lot even when we were together.'

Harry nodded again, remembering his talk with Krum just behind Hagrid's hut, where they had found Barty Crouch Senior.

'I became…confused. I liked Viktor a lot, but I wasn't sure what I thought or felt about you any more - so I kissed you at the end of the year to see if I would feel…I don't know, a tingle, I guess. I felt _something_, but in all honesty I don't know what. So I waited…but when I saw you again, it looked like you'd gone back to slacking off; you played around while we were in Grimmauld Place instead of working on your case. Honestly, Harry, if it weren't for Dumbledore I'm afraid that you would have let Fudge and Umbridge walk all over you at the hearing. I remember thinking "just-getting-by" Harry had made his reappearance, and things went back to normal.' Hermione glanced at the boy beside her again, once more fearful that she had offended him, but he actually looked sad, as though, on some level, he was agreeing with her and felt bad about his actions.

'I didn't immediately realize how much I wanted you to go back to how you were in fourth year. I know how selfish that is of me, but I really do have your best interests at heart, Harry; you're an amazing person, but you don't try, you don't push yourself at all. I know that you have it in you to become the greatest wizard in the school if you just wanted to. So I talked to you about what I was thinking when you seemed so reluctant to pursue the Defense group. Honestly, I thought you would have jumped at the chance to help people prepare, even just a little, for what's coming. Well…you know what I said that day…and then you came back; you started taking initiative and being more mature and everything and…well, as I said, I really like it.' She took in another breath. 'Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I'm a perfect person - far from it - and that I want to "fix" you, I just…'

Hermione faltered and fell silent, unable to find any more words within her. She avoided Harry's gaze as she waited for him to say something. She was terrified beyond belief, frightened that she had just lost her dearest friend. But she had needed to say all that - she had needed to let him know about the thoughts and feelings that had been swirling around inside her, some of them for almost as long as they had been friends. She felt lighter, as though keeping it all to herself had put an immense weight on her shoulders. Her feelings towards Harry for much of their fifth year had been just as they mostly had been over their years of being close: they were friends, just that. During the past few days, however, she had started to get flashes of the immense confusion that she had experienced last year. It wasn't a mental state that was familiar to her, and she wasn't at all sure of how she should deal with it.

She jumped in alarm when she felt an arm go around her shoulders; she looked around and saw that Harry was looking at her with half a smile on her face.

'I suppose I should have known that you were thinking this stuff; I've been thinking it myself, ever since your lecture. I _have_ been skating by up until now, haven't I? I'd actually like to start trying - and I hope that you'll help me, if you want.'

'You - You aren't mad at me?' asked Hermione, her eyes widened.

'No, why would I be? I just told you that I've been thinking a lot of the same lately, didn't I? If anything, I should be mad at myself - but that doesn't really help, does it?' Harry gave her a true smile here. 'I want to do my best this year - and not just because of the OWLs; if I'm going to end up in some crazy situation again, then I can at least be as prepared as I could possibly be, right?' Hermione returned his smile and nodded enthusiastically. 'But while we're on the subject, Hermione, can I, er, point out a few things I believe you could work on yourself?'

'Harry, I just basically attacked you - though in a much nicer tone of voice than I did Ron,' Hermione answered with a small laugh. 'I think it's only fair - and I would honestly appreciate your advice.'

Harry smiled again and said, 'Well, sometimes I think you wind yourself up too tight; you can goof off once in a while and still be the brightest witch of our age, you know.' Hermione gave another laugh and nodded. 'And maybe you should ease up on your aggression towards people when you're convinced you're right, like Luna for example; a lot of people may think she's not all up there, but isn't she free to believe whatever she wants? She's not hurting anyone, so why be mean to her? I don't think you've treated her at all well, whether it's to her face or behind her back. She doesn't deserve that, Hermione and if I'm honest, your behavior struck me as a little Malfoy-like.'

Hermione took this with a small, shuddering gasp and she immediately looked very ashamed of herself.

'You're right,' she whispered. 'I've been horrible, and all I know about her is what I've heard from others. I'll apologize to her.'

Harry smiled. 'I'd appreciate that; it'd be best if you two got along.'

'Why?'

'You'll know at the meeting tonight.'

Hermione shook her head. 'You've become a real mystery man lately, Harry.'

'D'you like it?'

The bushy-haired witch rolled her eyes and her green-eyed friend laughed. Hermione felt more relief than she could have ever thought possible - relief at still having Harry as a friend.

He looked thoughtful as he said, 'I'm also going to try being more social - make more friends, you know. It certainly wouldn't hurt, and I'd really like you to join me in that.'

'I'm not very good at making friends, Harry,' Hermione replied anxiously.

'Because, as I said, you wind yourself up too much. I'll make you a deal: you help me become the best wizard I can be and I'll teach you how to have fun.'

'I know how to have fun!'

'Really? What would you do rather than read a book?'

Hermione opened her mouth to answer, then closed it. She opened it again to argue her case, but Harry forestalled her.

'I know what you're going to say: reading and learning is fun for you. That's totally okay, Hermione, but I'm talking about doing crazy, goofy stuff that _other_ people would consider fun - things that you can do with friends. I believe we're long past the age where we can read to each other and have a good time, don't you think?'

Hermione sighed and nodded, conceding Harry's point. She accepted his proposal, then glanced around and seeing that their classmates had given up on eavesdropping on their whispered conversation, said, 'What about you and Ron?'

Harry sighed and spared himself a quick glimpse of the boy in question, who was sitting near the back of the class and apparently doing everything he could not to look at them. 'We can never go back to how things were.'

'And it's my fault.'

'Yes, it is - but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Ron's a decent bloke, but like you said, he isn't necessarily the best friend for me; he abandoned me last year and you were right, he made it too easy to slack off on our studies. And then that ultimatum he gave me in the corridor, and how he suddenly wanted no part of the Defense group just because I decided to have some Slytherins there - or how he reacted to Astoria's…actions. He's far from being supportive and open-minded, and honestly, I don't think that's what I need right now. And who knows, maybe some time away from each other would do us - and maybe everyone - some good. I'd try to talk to him, but I don't think he wants anything to do with either one of us any more. I do hope he comes for the Defense meetings, though.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't be; this could turn out to be for the best.'

'And if it doesn't?'

The bell signaling the end of Charms rang at that moment and they both jumped. Hermione's final question rang in Harry's mind as they packed their things and made their way to Transfiguration. He supposed that if things didn't work out well, he would just have to fix them as best as he could. If he couldn't fix them…

Well, there was really nothing he could do about that, was there?

* * *

'Here you go, Harry!' Astoria said brightly, handing him the list of members of the Defense group after she had sat down next to him; Harry admired how she was able to shrug off people's pointing, staring and whispering as though it meant absolutely nothing to her.

'That was fast,' he remarked, catching a glimpse of Ron glaring at the two of them and hastily looking back at the young Slytherin. He looked down at the list and saw that the other girls had all signed their names on it.

'I told you, Daphne loves runes; it was an easy job for her. You could learn a thing or two from her, Granger.'

Hermione scowled as Astoria smirked and Harry laughed, earning him a swat on the arm from his bushy-haired friend.

'Actually, could you get Daphne to come over here? There are a couple more ideas I have for the list, and I'd like to run them by her.'

Astoria immediately got up and went to the Slytherin table, where she appeared to have a heated argument with her sister. It was quite clear that Daphne did not want anything to do with the Gryffindor table, but her younger sister seemed relentless and five minutes later, the two of them were seated on either side of Harry, eliciting more whispers and stares from the Hogwarts population.

'Hello, Daphne,' said Harry brightly.

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow as she regarded him with her clear blue eyes. 'I don't remember giving you permission to use my first name, Potter.'

Behind him, Harry heard Astoria sigh in annoyance. He took it all in stride and kept smiling at the elder Greengrass girl, who he could tell was at best neutral towards him and a long way from trusting him.

'I think using first names would be best, seeing as how we'll be working together.'

'Working together?' Daphne repeated, her manicured eyebrow going up even higher.

'Yeah; I'd like you to take charge of security measures for the Defense group,' Harry explained; he had decided this the moment Astoria had given him the list back, in awe of how quickly Daphne had responded to their request. He also recalled how Astoria had mentioned that Daphne would be enthusiastic about taking part in coming up with ways to protect herself, her friends and her sister, and surmised that she would want the job. He would have revealed this to everyone at the first meeting, but he felt doing so now would get Daphne on his side at least a little, and he was sure that she would do a good job.

'Security measures?' Both her eyebrows were raised now.

'Yeah, like coming up with ways to make sure that no one blabs to Umbridge or anyone else we don't want; she might not be able to do anything with only suspicions that we're having meetings, but someone telling her the time and place of a meeting will definitely not be good for us.'

'Hence my jinxing the list with the Tongue-Tying Curse. By the way, Granger, it may not exactly have been ideal, but good work on that curse; I'm sure that almost everyone would have had a hard time figuring out the counter to that thing.'

'Oh…thank you,' Hermione said, looking ridiculously surprised at the praise from the Slytherin girl, who promptly turned back to Harry.

'The Tongue-Tying Curse is considered elementary - any first year should be able to do it - but it thankfully doesn't have a counter-curse, so it should work for our purposes; if anyone on the list tries mentioning _anything_ about the group to someone who isn't already on it, the curse will activate - and it will be renewed every time they try again, so it could go on forever if it needed to. Even if someone chooses to leave the group for whatever reason, I'd recommend keeping their name on the list to prevent them from talking.'

Harry nodded happily and smiled; it looked like he had indeed been right about Daphne.

'There are a few…improvements I wanted to talk to you about, to see if you could do them and how fast.' Daphne, Astoria and Hermione were watching him curiously, so he continued, 'I was thinking about writing; what if someone _wrote_ about the Defense group? That could land us into a fire as well.'

He watched the girls consider this for a moment and was happy to see that they were nodding their agreement.

'That's true, Harry,' Hermione said, smiling widely. 'But what would be the best way to counter that, I wonder?'

'We should go with the same logic as we did to prevent someone talking about the group: we should prevent people from being able to write about it altogether,' Daphne replied at once. 'There's a variation of the Jelly-Legs Jinx in one of my books that affects arms instead. I could limit its range to someone's fingers so that any time they even think about writing something to do with the group, it triggers; they wouldn't be able to hold a quill or anything else they could use to write.'

'I had a feeling you would be brilliant at this.' Harry smiled at Daphne, but the girl only shrugged.

'Daphne, what about Dictation Quills?' Astoria asked, frowning.

Daphne also frowned as she looked at the list. 'I hadn't thought of that. I suppose I could expand the scope of the Tongue-Tying Curse to include speaking to charmed objects, but I'm not entirely sure how I could do that…'

'I have a few reference materials on charmed objects, including the most common runes and spells used to enchant them,' Hermione supplied. 'I'm sure we could come up with something if we work together.'

Daphne stared at Hermione for a long time before she nodded her assent.

'Harry, what's wrong?' Astoria asked, seeing the green-eyed boy staring at the two fifth year girls in wonder.

'I'm realizing just how much I've been slacking off over the years; I don't have the first clue of how to do any of what we're talking about,' Harry answered, shaking his head.

'You wouldn't, not if you don't study Ancient Runes, Potter.'

'Yeah, I guess,' Harry answered. 'Just two more things: First, Astoria was talking about how the list could be a big bit of evidence if the wrong person ever found it. Is there any chance that you could have it show something else when anyone who isn't on it tries to read it?'

He was a little surprised to see Daphne nodding appreciatively at him. 'A wonderful idea, Potter. I'm glad that you're taking this seriously.'

'Honestly, the Defense group is all I think about nowadays; like I said, I don't want anyone to get into trouble on my account.'

Daphne watched him for a moment before she nodded again and said, 'That's certainly doable, and it wouldn't take long at all - we just need an idea of what we want it to show to outsiders. You had something else?'

'Yeah, for just in case someone was suspicious and managed to break past the illusion; the names are one thing, but I think we should get rid of everyone's handwriting. It makes it obvious that these people signed the parchment themselves, so they wouldn't be able to claim ignorance if something goes wrong. I'd like the names to be in the exact same handwriting if that's possible.'

'Harry, you're such a liar; you're _really_ smart,' Astoria said, smiling widely at him.

'He is when he tries,' Hermione corrected, also smiling. 'The rest of the time, though, I'm always wondering how he's gotten this far.'

'Thanks, Hermione,' Harry retorted, giving a fake scowl in her direction. 'And Astoria, please stop. I'm not used to compliments from beautiful girls; you're making me blush.'

If he wasn't regarding the list, hellbent on thinking up more ways to improve it, Harry would have realized what he had said, jokingly or not, and would likely have gone as red as Astoria had. When no other ideas struck him, he handed it to Daphne, who he was puzzled to see was looking between him and Astoria, as was Hermione.

'I think that's all for now,' he said. 'How long d'you think it would take to put all of that into place? Would it be possible to get it back to me by four?'

'That would give us about two-and-a-half hours from now,' Daphne mused. She thought for a moment then said, 'I think I can manage it, if you'd be willing to lend a hand, Granger.'

'Of course,' Hermione readily agreed.

'Whose handwriting should we use for the list, though?'

'Take the writing out of a textbook for now; we'll think more about it later.'

Daphne nodded, told Hermione to meet her in the library at two, then abruptly stood up and went back to the Slytherin table; Astoria wrapped her arms around Harry and pecked him on the cheek again before she left, which left him just as surprised as last time. Across the table, Hermione was watching her long-time friend with a faraway look on her face, thinking of a whole host of things.

Harry, meanwhile, had looked up at the Head Table to see Umbridge staring at him with a horrible smirk on her face. He knew that with these sudden interactions with the Slytherins, he had just painted a larger target on himself for her to hit. Unlike his shouting at her in her first lesson, however, he was sure, without a doubt, that this was totally worth it.


	6. Cherries

**Author****'s Notes:**

Okay, I feel like some apologies are in order, due to the it's-taking-forever nature of this update. I won't bore you with the sordid details, but I got caught up in a lot of stuff and couldn't find a lot of time in between to write. That's all over with though, and I'm happily back on the keyboard; I was seriously almost going into withdrawal. Apologies again, and rest assured that my update frequency is back on track - for real this time.

Oh, and fair warning for this chapter: you already know most of what they'll be talking about; this is just to set up some future interactions. And don't worry, "Dumbledore's Army" meetings are just around the corner :)

Okay, on with the chapter, and thanks for reading :)

* * *

Harry sat upon a desk in an abandoned classroom on the third floor, his fingers once again twisting around each other out of sheer nerves at what he was about to do. He checked his watch - and as though in answer to this simple action, the door opened.

There it was - the strange feeling that he got in his stomach whenever he laid eyes on her. Cho Chang stood framed in the doorway, looking every bit as beautiful as he had always thought she was. Her shiny black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which gave Harry a much-appreciated look at her face. Her cheeks turned rosy as their eyes met and she hastily looked down, shuffling her feet slightly.

'Hi, Harry,' she said to her shoes.

'Hi, Cho,' answered Harry as he got to his feet; he was determined to behave as best as he could towards Cho. 'Er, I'm sorry for having you come here on a free afternoon, but I really need to talk to you.'

'It - It's no trouble at all, Harry,' Cho said, shutting the door behind her. The slight thud seemed to herald all loss of sound, for the two fell silent and just stared at each other for the longest time. Deciding that he ought to take the lead, Harry cleared his throat - which felt as though it had rocks in it - and said, 'Er, why don't you sit down?'

Cho gave a small smile and a nod then crossed the room to sit on the desk that Harry himself had just vacated. He eyed the space next to her, wondering if he dared to seat himself there.

'Harry? Aren't you going to sit?'

Harry jumped; he hadn't realized that he was just standing there staring. He hastily sat next to Cho and instantly felt his heart increase its pace. He was truly amazed at the reactions that this girl's presence always evoked in him. They had, to his frustration, barely ever spoken; he realized that during the start of the year when they would run into each other and chat a bit. They had fallen back into a small lull of late, but apparently that had done nothing to diminish his feelings for the pretty Asian girl. He thought briefly of Astoria and his arrangement with her concerning Malfoy and wondered if it could end up sabotaging whatever small chance he may have had with Cho. Harry shook his head to clear it; he would worry about that later, he had something else he needed to discuss with Cho.

He decided to get right to it.

'Cho, I wanted to talk to you about - about Cedric and the night he died.'

She had been gazing at him with a quizzical look on her face since she took her place on the desk, but her expression instantly turned to one of sorrow. Tears welled up in her eyes.

Harry took a deep breath, well aware of how taxing this particular conversion could be. 'I - I decided that I want to tell everyone what happened that night, but I think that you deserve to hear it first, and straight from me - I owe you and Cedric that much. It isn't a pretty story, but will you hear me out?'

The tears were falling now, though Cho didn't make a sound. She was staring at him, fear evident in her dark eyes - fear of what Harry would tell her, of what she would learn and have to live with. Her breathing hastened even as she raised a hand up to her mouth to cover it and fight the sobs that threatened to escape her. Harry waited, feeling all the tension of a stretched rubber band tighten his body. He looked right back into her eyes, both enamored and terrified by what they showed him. He didn't say anything - he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

Cho abruptly nodded and produced a handkerchief from a pocket of her robes and dabbed at her eyes with it. She would listen to him. Harry gulped, took a deep breath and began his tale, following the script that he had laid out for himself.

'Well, you remember the Third Task?' He waited for Cho to nod again before continuing, 'The Triwizard Cup was in the center of the maze. Cedric and I made it there at the same time; Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum had already been eliminated by then. We ran into an Acromantula, though, and my leg ended up a little worse for wear. I couldn't make it to the Cup before Cedric even if I tried, so I told him to take it - but he refused. He said that I deserved to win. You see, I knew before the fact that we were going to be facing dragons in the First Task and I told Cedric about it and in the Third Task, I stopped Krum, who'd been Imperiused, from torturing Cedric. I guess he felt like he owed me. I was a little angry, to be honest; all he had to do was take a few steps and take the Cup. There was absolutely no way I could have beaten him short of cursing him, but there he was, insisting that I should be the one to win. So I proposed that we take the Cup together; we would tie, but it would still be a Hogwarts victory, and we would both get our way. I also thought it would make for a nice little upset: the first Triwizard Tournament held in so many years would also be the first one to have more than one victor.'

Harry paused, the self-loathing that he had felt during the summer at having hatched this plan threatening to consume him once more. Cho was watching him with rapt attention; she was still crying, but a small smile adorned her face, no doubt in amusement to the solution that he had posed to Cedric in the maze. That smile almost had him running out of the room; she would soon find out that that brilliant idea of his would play a very big part in Cedric's death.

He took a deep breath to brace himself. 'The Cup was a Portkey; as soon as Cedric and I touched it, we were transported to a graveyard in Little Hangleton - I know the name of the place, but I don't know exactly where it is. We weren't sure if this was a part of the Third Task or not, so we didn't really try to leave. By the time I realized that we were in danger, it was too late; someone joined us in the graveyard - two people, actually.' Harry paused. He didn't know how Cho would react to this next part, but she needed to know. 'Do you know about Sirius Black?'

She gasped. 'He - He was there?'

'No, no.' Harry shook his head sharply. 'If you know about Sirius, then you must know about Peter Pettigrew, am I right?'

'He was the man that Sirius Black killed along with those Muggles, wasn't he? Apparently they had been friends.'

'Yeah, they had been friends in school - friends with my dad and Professor Lupin too, in fact.' Harry watched Cho's eyes widen at this revelation. 'But Sirius didn't kill those Muggles - Pettigrew did. He didn't kill Pettigrew either - Peter framed Sirius and escaped.'

Cho's mouth was slightly open now. Harry watched her, wondering how she would react to what he was telling her. No doubt she would not believe him; the story would no doubt sound insane to anyone who had grown up hearing the tale of Sirius Black, mass murderer and Voldemort's most stounch supporter. He knew that he was going off on a tangent in telling her about Cedric's death, but he had determined that she needed to know these things, as personal as they were to him. She needed to know exactly who was truly to blame for Cedric's death. She needed to know, sordid as it was, that they had this in common: people that they could seek their vengeance upon.

Cho spoke after what felt to him an eternity. 'Are you serious?' In response to his solemn nod, she asked, 'B - But why would Pettigrew frame his friend?'

'Because he had been a spy for Voldemort during the last war.' Cho gave a little squeak at the Dark Lord's name. 'My parents had gone into hiding right before the war was to end because Voldemort was after us. They used the Fidelius Charm - do you know about it?' When Cho nodded, Harry continued, 'They'd originally wanted to use Sirius Black as the Secret Keeper since he was my dad's best mate, but they switched at the last moment because Sirius felt that he would be too obvious a choice - and they chose Peter Pettigrew.'

Harry watched as Cho gasped and understanding shone through her eyes.

'He betrayed your parents - that's why You-Know-Who found them even under the Fidelius Charm.'

Harry nodded, feeling an age-old bitterness fill him up. He hastened to continue the story to prevent himself from being swallowed by it.

'Sirius, of course, knew that Pettigrew had been the real Secret Keeper, so he went looking for him. When he found him, Peter shouted about Sirius betraying my parents, blew a crater in the street - which is what killed all those Muggles - then cut off his finger and transformed himself into a rat to escape; Peter was an unregistered Animagus, you see.'

Cho was staring at him with widened eyes again. He couldn't see any disbelief in her expression, only shock.

'Th - That's quite a story, Harry. Don't get me wrong, I do believe you, but what does all that have to do with Ced -' She stopped, her mouth hanging open. She gulped, then said, 'Peter Pettigrew was there in that graveyard, wasn't he?'

Harry was impressed that she could put the pieces together so fast - in fact, it reminded him a little of Hermione. She truly was a Ravenclaw.

'Yeah, he was - and so was Voldemort. He didn't die that night that he tried to attack me, despite what the Ministry would like everyone to believe; he just lost his powers and his body. I don't know how or why, but the Killing Curse that rebounded on him didn't kill him. Pettigrew tracked him down and helped him make a sort of temporary body. Then they found out about another Death Eater who was free: Barty Crouch Junior.'

Cho gasped again. Harry noted with some concern that her hands were shaking slightly. He looked at her in worry, but the expression on her face told him that she wanted him to continue, and so he did.

'They got Crouch Junior on their side and put Senior under the Imperius Curse. They already knew that the Triwizard Tournament was going to be held at Hogwarts, so they decided to use it to get to me - that's how my name got into the Goblet of Fire. It makes sense when you think about it; the Goblet should have known that only three schools compete in the tournament, and that only one champion could represent their school, so why would both mine and Cedric's names have come out of it? Someone tampered with it, we knew that much at the time, but we didn't know who. Well, I found out at the end of last year: Barty Crouch Junior, disguised as Mad-Eye Moody.'

Harry took a pause, waiting for Cho to take this in before he cleared his throat and continued, 'It worked; I made it to the graveyard, and Pettigrew and Voldemort were there waiting for me - but Cedric was there too. Voldemort ordered Peter to kill him, and he did it with Voldemort's wand. I - I couldn't do anything, believe me, Cho. I'm not sure exactly why, but my scar hurts really badly when I get close to Voldemort; I was in so much pain that I couldn't even see straight, let alone stand.' He knew that he sounded like he was trying to absolve himself of guilt, but he couldn't help it.

Cho had broken out in tears again, but this time sobs accompanied them; she abruptly stood and went to lean against a wall, her body shaking with grief. Harry got to his feed but stayed where he was, fearful that even moving a muscle would end in some sort of disaster. He stared at Cho's back as she cried and cried. In that moment, he was struck by just how much Cho had cared for Cedric and he felt a pang of despair at the thought despite himself. Would he ever amount to mean the same to this girl - perhaps more - just as he'd wanted since third year? Harry chastised himself for thinking that way; this was not at all about him, after all.

'Ch - Cho, I know that that's a really hard thing to hear, and in all honesty, I won't blame you if you're mad at me -'

'No!'

Harry's eyes widened as the Ravenclaw girl turned back to face him; her eyes were red, and the sadness that adorned them was indescribable - but so was the rage. In that moment, Harry was truly terrified of Cho Chang.

Her face instantly softened when she caught sight of his expression. 'I'm not mad at you, Harry, I'm mad at _them_. They've put you through so much - they destroyed your life. Then they kill Cedric just - just like that, as if he was nothing, nobody. No, it certainly isn't you that I'm angry with, Harry.'

Harry gulped; he could swear that Cho's tears had turned into liquid flame.

Cho gave a gulp of her own and said, 'I - I was scared that he might have died painfully, but it sounds like it was q -quick.' She took a deep breath. 'Th - Thank you for telling me all of this, Harry. I know it can't have been easy; a lot of it sounded really personal for you.'

Harry couldn't believe that she was worried about him in this situation. 'I know it must have been hard to hear as well,' he said, running a hand through his hair. 'Thank you for hearing me out.'

Cho nodded as she forced down another sob that tried to leave her. After a long pause in which the two did their best to avoid looking at each other, Cho said, 'I really liked Cedric, you know.'

Harry didn't know where she was going with this, but he was pretty sure that he didn't want to hear it.

'I didn't at first, though; I always thought he was a nice guy, but I didn't really have feelings for him.' That got Harry to look up and watch Cho intently. 'I was really surprised when he asked me to the Yule Ball; I honestly can't describe _how_ much.' She paused. 'Harry, y - you like me, don't you?'

Harry felt as though the ground had opened up and swallowed him whole. 'Er…' That was all he could come up with.

'It - It's okay, Harry; I - I like you too.'

Now he felt like he'd been slapped. 'Er…'

She continued talking, apparently unfazed by his lackluster responses. 'I've liked you for a while, actually - ever since the Quidditch match we first played against each other, to be honest. I always thought you were cute, but you're also sweet, kind and considerate. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when you asked me to the Yule Ball too late; I'd been waiting, you know. But when Cedric asked me, I accepted, figuring that if you were going to ask me, you would have done it by then.'

Harry felt his own foot kick him in his side at those words.

'I started seeing Cedric, and I grew to really like him - as much as I do you, possibly even more.' She paused, glancing at Harry to see how he would react to her last statement, but the boy seemed to be made of stone. 'I decided to put my best into my relationship with Cedric right before the Third Task came up - then he was taken from me.' Cho shook her head, fighting the urge to cry again. 'I was so terribly sad, and when we got on the Hogwarts Express, I came looking for you so that we could talk about what happened. But when I saw you, all these feelings came rushing back, and I didn't know - don't know - what to do. I'm still dealing with Cedric's death; I haven't gotten over him yet. I know that it really isn't the time to be thinking about another relationship or anything, but I took so long to commit to Cedric despite my feelings and he was gone just when I'd decided to do it. I really don't want to make the same mistake again, and I'm sure he'd agree if he were here right now. I like you, Harry, and I really want to give us a shot, but I don't think it would be fair to either of us at the moment - not until I sort out my issues concerning Cedric.'

Even in his wildest fantasies, Harry had never dreamed that Cho would say such things to him. His brain was still lagging behind though, and he could do nothing but stare at her.

She suddenly gave a little laugh. 'S - Sorry, I'm being really presumptuous, aren't I? Here I am assuming that you'd want to date me when you haven't actually said anything about it -'

'No, I definitely want to date you,' Harry said at once - then cringed at the speed with which the words had left his mouth.

Cho didn't seem to mind, though; she was smiling. 'That's good, I was starting to feel like I was being a bitch to you.' She suddenly looked nervous. 'So, um, what's going on with you and Astoria Greengrass?'

Yes, his deal with Astoria would definitely be a hindrance where he and Cho were concerned. He decided that honesty was definitely the best policy in this situation.

'It's kind of an arrangement we have; she told Malfoy that I was interested in her and that she's playing with me so that he'll get off her back about associating with me.'

Cho looked very amused at this - and happy. 'So you aren't dating?'

'W - Well, we agreed to go on a few dates to really convince Malfoy, but it isn't…you know, official or anything. She doesn't like me that way,' Harry answered, fidgeting heavily as though he would dearly like to bolt out of the room.

'That's great,' Cho said, looking legitimately like it was the best news that she had received in a long while. 'In that case, would you be open to a few dates with me? I'm certainly not ready for a relationship right now, but I don't think there's anything wrong with getting to know each other better, do you?'

'No, of course not,' Harry said, once again, horrified at how quickly his response had come.

Cho's smile widened. 'Good. In that case…' She sidled towards Harry, who couldn't take his eyes off her. She came right up to him, placed her hands on either side of his face and planted a soft, lingering kiss on his lips. His first kiss. He tasted cherries. Saying he loved it would be a severe understatement. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, feeling a flood of sensations and emotions flare into being within him.

When they pulled apart, they both had goofy grins on their faces.

'I really like you, Harry,' Cho whispered in a sultry voice that caused Harry's arms to erupt in goosebumps. 'That was just something to remind you of that fact if you happen across another girl. I may not be ready to take this further at the moment, but I _will_ be, I promise. Will you wait for me?'

Too stunned to speak by the feel of her against him, Harry simply nodded, which resulted in another kiss.

Long after Cho Chang had left the room, Harry Potter stood there, looking every bit as petrified as though he had just met a Basilisk - at least, if you didn't count the smile.


End file.
